What’s the most important feature you look for in a new phone?

Ah, that new phone smell. Buying a new phone can be a sort of ritual. Some loyalists will immediately order what’s new from a company they already have faith in, some will ponder endlessly and obsess over every detail, and others are content to wait and see before the plastic card comes out. But one thing we all have in common is that we’re usually looking for just a few specific things from that tiny computer we carry around in our pockets.

Luckily, there are plenty of different specifics we want and plenty of different companies to offer them. Maybe you want the comfort of software support directly from the company who writes it or you want a phone with the best screen and buy from the company who makes the best screens. There are countless different unique features available from any and every company who makes smartphones in 2018.

My phone is my way of talking to family and friends. I don’t care about playing games or having a million dollar camera or anything else. I keep a couple of phones going here so I can see how some companies do stuff, but I’m using the BlackBerry KEYone as my phone. I’ll probably move to the KEY2 when it comes out because it’s treated me well. I like the familiarity and the keyboard, and the rest of the phone and its features are more than good enough for me. You might want a Galaxy S9 or a Google Pixel or whatever. That’s cool.

Everyone is different and BlackBerry probably won’t sell 60 gazillion KEYtwo phones. It’s easy to see why — other phones have better cameras, or better screens, or more features in the software, and so on and so on. That’s really cool if you think about it because everyone can find something that works for them and it keeps companies who make phones on their toes to make each model better than the last one was. There’s almost certainly a phone that works for you, and that’s pretty important since they aren’t just a phone any longer; they are a lifeline to the outside world.

What phone are you using, and why did you buy it? What do you want to see in your next phone? Which one feature would get you to buy a phone right away? It’s always fun to read the answers to questions like these, so jump into the comments and let ‘er rip — tell us who and why!